Re: FACTS ABOUT TENNESSEE ILLNESSES

[EASlavin@aol.com]

In a message dated 04/06/2000 10:48:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
PBPOLLAN@southernco.com writes:

<< Should enormous payouts be made, on the backs of taxpayers like
 you and me, on statistical probabilities? >>
Who proposed that?  Not me. First, most workers can never sue their employer 
in tort because workers' compensation is their exclusive remedy.  Second, to 
internalize the "external costs," I have proposed a system of nuclear 
workers' compensation that taxes pollution by DOE contractors -- making the 
polluters pay.  That is precisely what is done in Black Lung compensation, 
where a per-ton tax on coal producers pays for Black Lung benefits for 
disabled coal miners.  You are absolutely right.  It is not fair that average 
taxpayers -- people working in McDonald's and coal mines and offices -- 
should dig deep to pay for compensation that should rightly be paid for by 
the Union Carbides and Lockheed Martins of the world, who created the 
problems in the first place.  Make the polluters pay.

My written testimony before Senator Fred Thompson last month proposes a 
system of workers' compensation similar to the one that exists for Longshore  
and Harbor Workers and for Black Lung (pneumoconiosis) victims.  DOE has 
proposed buying off a few select workers at a few select sites for the 
one-time sum of $100,000, with no lifetime medical care, no hearings, no 
appeals, no Administrative Law Judges.  In contrast, a Black Lung recipient, 
his widow and his orphans will typically collect some $500,000 in 
compensation, health care costs and attorney fees.  This is not a windfall.  
You would not want to have Black Lung disease, or the diseases that Oak Ridge 
workers suffer.  This subject is covered in my testimony, the url to which I 
will post as soon on this list as soon as I have it. 

In a message dated 04/06/2000 10:48:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
PBPOLLAN@southernco.com writes:

<< As far the media is concerned, in my neck of the woods, we have very good
communication with the media.  Unfortunately, we don't have the ability to
proof-read the copy before it is printed or broadcast.  Errors abound in
almost all articles written by the 'unlearned' regarding nuclear power,
nuclear waste, and just about anything else dealing with the term "nuclear".
It is not malicious on the part of the media, I would hope, just ignorance. >>

You don't want the ability to proofread either. Jefferson said he would 
rather have newspapers without government rather than government without 
newspapers.  Other points are well taken.  There is an element of hysteria to 
some reporting, and a desire for ratings.  While the New York Times had 113 
front page articles on DOE sites in 1988, most newspapers don't take the time 
to cover the issues of pollution, disease and death at DOE sites.  

Oak Ridge has signs and p.r. materials that state "the vision lives on."  
Indeed it does, if managers knew what "the vision" is.  Due to the vision and 
outspokenness of the late Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, the father of health physics, I 
think that Oak Ridge workers and nuclear powerplant workers are much better 
protected against radiation than they are against chemicals.  

I think Dr. Susan Gawareckiof the Oak Ridge Local Oversight Committee put it 
well on this listserv when she recently noted that workers were probably more 
at risk from chemicals than radiation.  The lackadaiscal nature of industrial 
hygiene and chemical protection is in sharp contrast to the sincere efforts 
and intellectual rigor of most HPs.  Rote reliance on TLVs and ACGIH is no 
substitute for thought.

The ALARA principle should apply equally to toxic chemical exposures, despite 
the fervid fulmnations of the Michael Fumentos  of the world, who would apply 
a risk-benefit analysis that implicitly assumes a dollar value on human life. 
  This Dr. Strangelove mentality leaves me cold.  One Oak Ridge manager used 
to say, "just because they call it hazardous waste doesn't mean it's 
hazardous to your health." 

The lessons learned from health physics have been inadequately applied to  
chemical exposures, and the sick Oak Ridge workers are living proof.

Ed Slavin
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